In recent years, filled artificial turfs have substantially increased in popularity and use, compared to prior Astroturf-type artificial surfaces and natural grass athletic surfaces. Filled artificial surfaces look and feel more like natural grass, compared to prior Astroturf-type products. Also, compared to a natural grass field, a filled artificial turf has significantly lower maintenance costs, while allowing significantly more playing time.
For certain sporting facilities or venues, particularly indoor arenas or stadia, the facility may be used for a wide variety of events, including non-sporting events. Some of these events could have adverse effects on a typical filled artificial turf, due to excessive wear. These adverse effects become more acute as the number of these events increases. These adverse effects tend to reduce the playability of, and shorten the effective life of the artificial turf. Yet, these facilities need to accommodate non-sporting events to optimize the use and revenue generated by the facility. Thus, there is a need to accommodate the multi-purpose needs of such facilities, while at the same time minimizing or eliminating any adverse effects on the artificial turf used for sporting events.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/104,030, published as U.S. Publication No. US 2002/0136846, in the name of Prevost, shows a Velcro-type, i.e. hook and loop, fastener arrangement for simplified installation of an artificial turf. The fastener arrangement extends along the bottoms of the edges of the field sections. This published U.S. application also shows removable turf sections located in various parts of the field, so that team logos or other insignia may be incorporated into the field. As the initial steps for creating a replaceable logo section, this publication discloses the removal of the infill from the designated logo, followed by cutting of the artificial turf around the perimeter of the logo section.
This publication does not address the need for a sporting facility to accommodate a wide variety of sporting and non-sporting events. Nor does this publication disclose the removal or reinstallation of an entire artificial turf surface as a way to meet that need.
Published U.S. application Ser. No. 10/453,525, published as U.S. Publication No. 2004/0058096 A1, also in the name of Prevost, is entitled, “Modular Synthetic Grass Turf Assembly” and discloses a plurality of tray-like artificial field units which are transportable. Each of the field units is, in effect, a mini filled artificial turf. The publication discloses disengageable edge borders on the turf units to help retain the particulate fill during transport. This publication discloses transportation of the units via a forklift, wherein the units remain in horizontal position and are supported on a flat sheet, so as not to deform during shipment or storage. This publication discloses that the tray like turf units have maximum dimensions of 15 feet by 48 feet. Thus, it would necessarily follow that about 80 of such turf units would be needed to cover just the actual playing surface of a typical U.S. football field, which has dimensions of 360 feet by 160 feet. Thus, removing and installing a field of this type would involve significant labor, time and equipment usage.
It is an object of this invention to improve upon the ability of a large facility to readily accommodate both sporting and non-sporting events, without adversely effecting the performance or durability of an artificial turf used in the same facility for sporting events.
It is another object of this invention to simplify and reduce the costs of transforming an indoor stadium from an athletic field, to a non-athletic surface use, and then back to an athletic field.
It is still another object of this invention to reduce the hardware, costs and steps needed to remove and then later reinstall a filled artificial turf.